July 2026 News

• On July 16th, Iliana gave a talk at Axelrad beer garden, the first in what is planned to be an ongoing, monthly series of educational talks by local researchers. Titled “Notable Feats in the World of Bug Sex,” the talk whimsically covered interesting and unusual mating behaviors found in the insect world.
• Matt McCary, Saheed Jimoh, Amoi Campbell, and Annie Finneran attended this year’s Entomological Society of America meeting in Salt Lake City from July 26th-31st. Matt organized a session to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Black Ecologist Section, featuring a presentation on the Section’s history and a panel discussion. Saheed, Amoi and Annie all delivered oral presentations on their current research projects.
• On July 31st, Amoi Campbell’s first PhD thesis chapter was published as a review paper in Ecology and Evolution, titled “From The Ground Up: Can Root Traits Help Understand Invasion Dynamics?” The paper can be accessed here. 
• Also on July 31st, undergraduates Noemi Torres-Zazueta and Nadia Jett presented posters on their summer research projects at the Rice Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium. This was both of their first times creating and presenting academic posters, and we are proud of both of their work.
• Finally, at long last, the lengthy and labor-intensive process of filling our many large mesocosm tubs with soil mix has been completed! We can now focus on installing native plant communities within these tubs, which will create a foundation for numerous experimental treatments and analyses next year.